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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27899899">but i'll take your heart served up both ways</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy'>smallredboy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hannibal (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexuality, Character Study, Delusions, F/M, First Kiss, Homophobic Language, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Necrophilia, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Pining</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:34:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,749</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27899899</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Something about Hannibal Lecter makes Francis reconsider everything he knows about himself.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Francis Dolarhyde/Reba McClane, Francis Dolarhyde/Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Froday Flash Fiction Little &amp; Monthly Specials 2020, Genprompt Bingo Round 17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>but i'll take your heart served up both ways</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>fffc's 100th special:</b> trace<br/><b>gen prompt bingo:</b> terribly misunderstood villain</p><p>as a psychotic person i always think a lot about francis, and i also think he should've realized he's bisexy before murdering all those people. so i just wrote this little thing.</p><p>enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Francis traces his fingers over the photos from the crime section of the newspaper. It's odd, he thinks, to look at two men and see something interesting in them. They're both gorgeous, with nice features and vivacious eyes. He reads the story, what the paper has to say about them— Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter, two men playing a dangerous cat-and-mouse game until Hannibal gave himself up to the FBI, right outside of Will Graham's cabin in Wolf Trap. </p><p>And Hannibal, well, he's the Chesapeake Ripper. Reading about hsi crimes is fascinating, makes something inside him snap. The cannibalism and the beautiful, fascinating murder tableaus. He doesn't have much to say about it— he's never really considered cannibalism an option or an idea, but he does enjoy the aesthetic of a rich man making many, many people eat human meat without their knowledge. It's powerful. Something about it is very powerful.</p><p>There is a certain admiration he holds for the man, even if he's behind bars now. And, well, he manages to get in and fool people into thinking he's his lawyer, somehow. He expected more of a fight to get in, to <em>talk</em> to him, but he does.</p><p>He doesn't have a typical therapy session with him. He doesn't talk about his childhood— his grandmother's vicious anger, the way she'd call him a faggot, words full of hatred. He tries not to think about it, as hard as it is not to. He talks about his becoming, about the deaths of the two families, and Hannibal doesn't ask him about the women. There's a certain respect, a mutual one, that holds between the two of them. Both their ways of desecrating bodies are fine on their own. Perhaps he should mix and match sometime.</p><p>He falls for Reba. That is a fact. So he's not a faggot, at least not completely. He loves Reba, he loves the way she looks at him without looking, the way she doesn't know what's wrong with him until he shows her. He's the Great Red Dragon and she sees him just as a man, a normal man struggling to make himself fit into this huge, confusing world. The idea is comforting— the idea of being <em>normal</em>. But he's not normal, and he will never be.</p><p>"Reba," he says after they have sex, quietly, "I think there's something wrong with me.</p><p>She curls up against his chest, hums. "Why do you say that?"</p><p>"I know I like women," he says softly. "I like you. I like you a lot." There's a pause. "But there's something inside me, stirring, and I don't... I don't know what it is." A pause. "I know— I know about faggots, but I—"</p><p>"Don't... call them that," Reba says gently. "Do you think you... like men, too?"</p><p>He considers that, for a second. He says with certainty, "It's one or the other, right?"</p><p>"Not necessarily," she replies. "I know of people who like both men and women. Bisexuals. If you're that, I don't see a problem with it."</p><p>He grits his teeth, looks out into the distance. "Maybe I am that," he replies. He doesn't know if his grandmother used that word with that meaning, or if she just saw it as an opportune insult— did she see what he may be, all those years ago? Could she tell? The idea makes him sick to his stomach, for people to have known and seen him before he had known and seen himself.</p><p>His conversations with Hannibal grow longer, and he falls for him a little bit more every day.</p><p>"Reba," he says, curled up against her. "Would it be okay if I liked a man? Right now?"</p><p>She considers this, turns into his vague direction. "I don't think we're in a relationship... like we never had the relationship talk so, maybe it would be fine. I don't really mind."</p><p>"Okay," he says. He tries not to think about Hannibal's hot darkness, the way he pulls him in with each descriptor of his transformation, with each intonation of his voice. His voice is beautiful. He's thinking about how he told him a certain address, a family that seems to work out for his type of victim. He rolls it around in his head, does some light googling.</p><p>He'll kill Will Graham's wife. Something about that makes him dizzy with eagerness, manic with desire.</p><p>"Who do you fancy?" she asks.</p><p>"A guy I met at my job," he says softly. It's not precisely a lie, he thinks. "He's older. He's... um... he's got great cheekbones."</p><p>Reba laughs softly and leans her hand in to feel his cheekbones, and he leans into the touch willingly, in a way he'd never realy done before.</p><p>"Do I have great cheekbones too?" he jokes.</p><p>"Yes," she replies, pulling him into a gentle kiss. "You've got a great everything."</p><p>Molly Graham is, at it turns out, more resilient than he expected. She survives, something no one has ever done before against him. It feels strange, but he manages to respect it, find a certain admiration in the fact she managed to escape his grip.</p><p>It all keeps going, and he ends up going face to face with Will Graham. He drugs him with chloroform, watches him struggle, and it's only when he wakes up that he realizes just how beautiful he is. He has nice cheekbones, just like Hannibal does. He may have a type.</p><p>As they talk, Francis feels like the only way this could possibly end is with them fighting to the death. Either he lives or the two men, those two men who have made him realize he may not be <em>normal</em> in more ways than one, do. He'd love to kill Hannibal and do what he's done to the women along his wake, feel him against him. But he'd much rather have him be alive for such a task. A truce, of sorts.</p><p>As he gets to the beach house he's been following the police car to, he resists the urge to do it the easy way; to shoot Hannibal through the window. Maybe he should offer them a truce, something they can sleep on. Something to make him realize if he really is what he is.</p><p>He knocks on the door, trying to not regret everything that happened between him and Reba. He knows it was unsustainable, that it wouldn't work out in the long run, when she was such a good woman and he was trying to have his becoming. He wanted to keep loving her, to be with her forever, but he knew that wasn't a choice. So maybe he should find some sort of comfort in people like him. Hannibal understands him, their therapy sessions through the phone some of the most soothing conversations he's had since he has memory. He hadn't brought up the subject of his worries, as much as he should've, perhaps— with how Hannibal is just like him, he would've been able to offer some words of advice, some comfort, perhaps.</p><p>Hannibal had betrayed him. The logical step would be to kill him. But he doesn't want to. He looks at the door intently until someone opens it.</p><p>And there he is, in all his glory— it is so different to see him in person, outside of the pictures in the newspapers, outside of the tabloid rumors about who he is, about why he did what he did. The court ruled him insane, but Francis finds him the most sane man he's ever spoken to.</p><p>"Francis," he says, looking at him intently. He's wearing a suit, something he must've gotten from this place, as he must've been in his prison jumpsuit beforehand. The suit and tie are perfectly tailored for his body, fitting him nicely, pants perhaps tight on purpose. His cheekbones are as sharp as they look in the pictures, and his eyes glint with interest. "I thought you would be far more rude when you came here. I did not expect a knock at my door."</p><p>He smiles. "I thought of being rude, too," he says. "But I don't want to end up as your meal."</p><p>He might've made this up, but there's a certain part of him that's convinced that his conversations with Hannibal were almost heated, almost erotic, treading the line between something normal and something intense with sexual desire. He wants to believe that he's right, that he could kiss Hannibal and get away with it, kiss Hannibal without getting a knife stuck in between his ribs.</p><p>"I would not like to end up as your meal, either," Hannibal says lightly. "Come in."</p><p>He nods. "Of course."</p><p>Will Graham is, unsurprisingly, here too. His eyes widen a tad when he sees him, hsi and hovering over the gun tucked into his pocket. Hannibal shakes his head, like telling him to relax, but Will doesn't. He's beautiful, too, just as in the pictures, even more so— he relishes the memory of drugging him, his body struggling against his own. It felt a little like sex. Francis doesn't want to think too much about it, cheeks flushing red at the thought.</p><p>"What are you doing here?" Will asks. "I thought you'd have shot Hannibal by now."</p><p>Francis tilts his head. "I thought about it. I considered it. But I want something more out of him rather than simple death."</p><p>"It's not like you wouldn't have used my body, no?" Hannibal asks, smile almost catlike.</p><p>Will looks almost scandalized. "Didn't he only do that to the women?"</p><p>He huffs. "indeed," he says, slowly, savoring the words. "But I wouldn't quite mind doing it with a man." A pause. "Even more so if he was alive."</p><p>Hannibal hums. "Alright then," he says. "I guess we can experiment."</p><p>Francis pulls him into a kiss, hot and hungry and wet, and he finds himself filled with want. It's unlike anything he's ever felt before, all consuming, and as he kisses Hannibal, someone just like him, he knows that he's a faggot. But maybe that's all not so bad.</p><p>Will huffs and steps closer toward them. "I can't believe the Red Dragon got to kiss you before I did," he says.</p><p>Hannibal whips his head around, and he grins, shows off his all too sharp teeth. "You can take second place, then."</p><p>(Not killing Hannibal was the right choice, all in all, is what Francis thinks as he traces circles on Hannibal's back that very night.)</p>
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